Abstract
Aggressive adolescents are preferable in some Western cultures, whereas Confucianism places great emphasis on the inhibition of aggressive behaviors in Chinese culture. Using the longitudinal social network analysis, we used a sample of 1354 Chinese adolescents (54% boys, ages 12–15) who were followed over 1 year at three time points to examine the association between friendship dynamics and physical, verbal, and indirect aggression and the moderating role of gender. This study found the following: (1) Students who were verbally aggressive were regarded as attractive, whereas those who were indirectly aggressive were unattractive as friends; (2) adolescents selected peers with similar levels of aggression as friends; (3) adolescents were influenced by their friends’ aggressive behaviors; and (4) girls were more susceptible than boys to the influence of physical aggression, although gender did not moderate the influence process of verbal and indirect aggression. The findings of this study provided a clearer insight into the selection and influence processes of the three subtypes of aggression and contributed to the diversity of samples. Chinese educators should pay more attention to both verbal aggression because of youths’ preference for it and to girls with physically aggressive friends since they are more susceptible than boys.
Highlights
Aggression has been widely investigated by researchers regarding many aspects, such as different forms of aggression, gender differences, functions and impacts, risk factors, and culture-specific influences on aggression (e.g., Archer, 2004; Lansford, 2018)
We aim to address four questions regarding physical, verbal, and indirect aggression in the Chinese context: (RQ1) Do adolescents nominate aggressive peers as friends? (RQ2) Do adolescents tend to make friends with peers who have a similar level of aggression? (RQ3) Does friends’ aggression influence adolescents’ aggression? (RQ4) Are there any gender differences regarding the influence process of aggression?
We investigated the friendship dynamics of physical, verbal and indirect aggression in China using social network analysis (SIENA) and made interesting and culturally different findings
Summary
Aggression has been widely investigated by researchers regarding many aspects, such as different forms of aggression, gender differences, functions and impacts, risk factors, and culture-specific influences on aggression (e.g., Archer, 2004; Lansford, 2018). The associations between peers and aggression have been discussed due to the salient role of peers in the development of aggression (Brechwald and Prinstein, 2011). The influence of peers is a key factor that affects adolescent aggression. It is documented that adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors are markedly similar to those of their friends (Brechwald and Prinstein, 2011). Exploring how teenagers acquire and develop different forms of aggressive behaviors in their social network (a representation of the relationships among a collection of individuals) lays an important foundation for effective prevention and intervention measures
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